As the title suggest, that is what today's session became!
I had been stuck in house for over two weeks just itching to get out on the bank and with a week off work and a substantial rise in air temp i was off, but not without a bit of careful thought first. As we all know we have just froze and had the usual yearly light dusting of snow that grinds the whole country to a halt, despite the roads been clear for a week there was still a fair bit of snow laid down on the ground of the hills that feed most of the Yorkshire rivers. This rise in temperature would soon see them filling up with freezing cold snow melt, the worst thing for any river FACT. So through Sunday and Monday i checked the EA river level web site morning and night and felt sure i could get onto the Calder for the first time since October before the cold water made its way down to where I was heading. One final check this morning before I left the house had me thinking I had made the right decision to get on the bank today rather than later in the week. WRONG!!!
I made my way to the very bottom of the length I had fished previously as I knew it would be deeper down there and felt sure the fish would move down here in the winter months. I soon found a very nice looking swim that some kind person had spent a long time creating, three steps made of small paving flags made the usual climb down the bank very easy for once and a larger one just above the water made for a nice comfy day sat right by the waters edge. I tackled up with a new Team Woody's 8x 4no stick float in 8 to 9 feet of water and started to flick half a dozen maggots in every minute or so, i also set a light feeder rig up too and started on a small maggot feeder 2/3rds of the way over the river but after 30 or 40 minute without so much as a twitch I decided to see if anything had moved onto the float line.
Eeerrrmmmmmm nope. Despite my best efforts of dancing a stick float down the swim, bait changes, shotting pattern changes, depth changes and a switch back onto the feeder, three hours passed without so much as a burst maggot. Then the cold breeze picked up and blew straight at me instantly making my decision to move for me. I quickly bundled the gear into the car that was conveniently parked right behind my peg and headed a couple of mile down stream to another deeper area.
Now I have only fished this stretch of the river further up just below a large weir so i left the gear in the car and walked downstream to the deeper, slower water away from the weir pool. This part of the river doesn't see many anglers but i soon found a low part of the relatively steep high bank that some kind sole had made a half decent effort of making a peg. As it was pretty featureless and it was now mid afternoon a decided to just plop a maggot feeder out for an hour or two and see what came along. Well after a hour and half of drowning maggots I decided to call it a day, a little disappointed but better than been stuck in the house.
I will be out servicing for my mate on the Riponian Stages Rally at the weekend and then family life resumes for a couple of weeks before I can get back out on the bank, that gives me just one last chance to catch a few fish from a river before the season ends once again. I'm thinking of heading back up to Pool on the Wharfe for one more crack at them grayling but if anyone knows of a stretch of river that's good for a days sport on the stick then I'm open to suggestions.
Dave
